Effect of Direct Water Injection Timing on Common Rail Diesel Engine Combustion Process and Efficiency Enhancement

The present work aims at optimizing diesel engine combustion efficiency with optimized water injection strategy. The engine had been modified based on a two-cylinder mechanical pump diesel engine into common rail diesel engine with capability of direct water injection. The direct water injection system was designed and manufactured independently. An air-fluid booster was utilized to establish the water injection pressure up to 40MPa. Customized diesel injector was selected to be used as water injector in this study. Water injection strategy was optimized in detail with injection timing around TDC which ranges from 12°CA BTDC to -5°CA BTDC under 10 bar IMEP. The engine efficiency can be improved under selected water injection strategy due to the increment of work fluid in the combustion chamber. Moreover, the nitric oxides emissions show decrement around 10%. As the water injection timing approaching TDC, the efficiency enhancement rate increased and reached its peak value at 5°CA BTDC. The enhancement rate dropped as the injection timing further postpones. The water injection timing shows little effect on the nitric oxides emissions under the selected water injection duration. It can be predicted that the enhancement rate can be improved as engine load increases.